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EXCLUSIVE: Humbug - Arctic Monkeys talk about their new album
TIME is one of the significant factors in the evolution of Humbug.
Having put out two albums within a year, shifting around four million copies along the way, provided the security to step back a bit from the fire while the flames died down.
"We wanted to get the second album straight back out there," recalls Alex. "We had to shave a bit of a beard off for that second album. Whereas this time it was the end of last year and it was like 'Let's take a minute'.
"We flirted with the idea of doing the third one straight away but then we needed to just step back and play records and write tunes again.
"The two other times we've had a record out, the first one was just mad anyway – around that time you never knew what was going to happen – and the second time we did it so quick it was get back into it and almost demonstrate to ourselves a little bit that it didn't all end after those first 13 tunes."
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Having enjoyed commercial success with the elegant and classic formula of The Last Shadow Puppets, a collaboration with his friend Miles Kane of The Rascals, Alex had arguably found the confidence to try something different away from the relative comfort zone of the Monkeys.
Maybe that spilled into the work of his main employers. The band's initial rockier endeavours, brought about by constant touring, led to touring pal Josh Homme, of Queens of The Stone Age.
Initial sessions with him in the Mojave Desert and Los Angeles didn't lead to the heavy album many at first anticipated. And, added to the half produced by Simian Mobile Disco member James Ford in Brooklyn, there's an intriguing synergy between those earlier Monkeys workings and the journey perhaps the Shadow Puppets might have taken.
Certainly there's little evidence of the dance influence drummer Matt Helders might have brought, not least from his new friend P Diddy.
"For a minute, yeah," Alex says when asked if they were tempted to produce themselves this time. "That was the thing, do you build a studio and do it yoursen? I don't think we're ready for that. We still have a few steps to go before that stage."
So was using Josh a reaction to the suited and booted charm of Shadow Puppets?
"We wanted it to be a different thing to that," he concurs, "but I think it happened quite naturally, being us four making music together and all kind of written in a different way.
"And I do think the process of it is different enough. It's like anything, not just Shadow Puppets, you know when to stop I suppose.
"One thing Josh was adamant about was that it was us, it didn't matter where we went. And I think we've got the confidence to try stuff like that now, whereas before we'd never have dreamed of doing that through fear of does it become something else?
"I think just, though, being in a band together for a bit longer and having written more tunes you just build it up. And taking that bit of time off as well, it relaxes you and we were 'well, let's try stuff out."
The distinction between the albums is immediate. While Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not was a youthful burst of energy with a sense of locality that somehow spoke to people across territories and demographics, its sequel was not quite a reaction but an extension, the second part of a rock triathlon.
With Humbug it is as if the lads know they've got to pull something else out of the bag other than pure energy to make it to the end of the course. And they've done so with dramatic results, combining clever arrangements, style, humour and Turner's instinctive knack for a lyric to produce a record that sheds its layers like an onion, with less eye watering. The band, for one, considers it a triumph.
"This one, everything about it, is a bit more considered and for that reason now, having the finished LP, it's like a feeling of satisfaction among everyone… unparalleled to the first times we done it. I don't know if it's because it's better or it's because we didn't have time to think about it with the previous two.
"Playing the songs now, it all seems there's a good feeling about it. They don't sound like the others and in that respect it's a bit of a step on this album. It doesn't sound much like the other albums other than the identity of the band is still quite stark – but you would really have to try if you wanted to deviate from that."
Jamie nods in agreement. "Some of the early stuff you kind of think, especially on the second record, we should have taken a bit longer.
"It's good we did it like that and there was no regret, but there's bits on it you hear and wish we'd taken a bit more time with that whereas this one… I put this one on and I'm totally happy from beginning to end."
It seems all members of the band have their highlights from the album. For Alex it is a song called Secret Door, a brooding track that comes midway through the album.
"I've been really enjoying playing that live. We've been closing with that even though it only gets a cricket clap, but it sounds great. It's a tune we had for a long time and we finally got it together."
Certainly it is one of several different 'shapes' for a band many maybe thought they had sussed.
Humbug will surprise some, maybe filter out the less committed, but it is an album the band needed to make.
"There is already a sense of achievement just having it complete and the sound of it," says Alex.
"We all really love this record; it just seems like a leap on for us in terms of writing and playing. There don't seem to be as many niggles with it yet whereas soon after we made the other records it's always been 'Ah, is that right?'"
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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